Board to consider millage increase

Friday

Oct 18, 2013 at 10:00 AM

With a small amount of feedback and a few responses to their online survey, Mendon Community Schools Board of Education members may be in position to decide whether to pursue a 1-mill increase request.

Jef Rietsma

With a small amount of feedback and a few responses to their online survey, Mendon Community Schools Board of Education members may be in position to decide whether to pursue a 1-mill increase request.The board has its next regularly scheduled meeting Monday, and the seven-member panel will likely make one of three decisions: authorize the request, postpone action indefinitely, or table the matter and call a special meeting before Nov. 6 to further review the $9.3 million ballot question.About a dozen people, including the public and district officials, attended the second of two public forums Wednesday to hear details about the proposal.Superintendent Rob Kuhlman gave an overview of the plan and the district’s need to fix up its aging buildings, improve its transportation fleet and bring its technology infrastructure up to date.Unlike the first public forum two weeks ago, a number of questions were asked, and concerns expressed about the proposal and some of the uses for the money. Queries posed by Denny and Kathy Brueck, and Willard Heath included why the track would eventually be replaced, the seemingly high amount of $205,000 to demolish the Mendon Heritage Schoolhouse and a former doctor’s office adjacent to the elementary school, specific details about improvements to the high school cafeteria, the state of the district’s bus garage and a plan to re-roof the high school.Heath said in his opinion, the district in a series of renovations and improvements in 2005 focused more on cosmetic measures and less on essential operations, including school boilers.Denny Brueck further noted Mendon is a “meat and bones” community that simply wants its buildings to be efficient, with less of an emphasis on glamour.“Do things simply … we don’t need everything fancy looking,” he said, encouraging prudent choices with the potential money. Though district officials chose not to challenge Heath’s claim of “fluff” during the 2005 work, board president Roger Cupp said the board and Kuhlman have drastically trimmed a list of needs from more than $13 million to the $9.3 million the district may seek over an eight-year period. If district officials decide to pursue the request, voters would head to the polls Feb. 25.If the measure is approved, the work would be done in three phases, with construction bonds sold over periods of time instead of all at once.At stake is a proposal that would see nearly two-thirds of the potential $9.3 million dedicated toward renovations at both district buildings.Priorities were based on a comprehensive facilities assessment that scrutinized all operations at the two buildings and prioritized their needs. At Mendon Elementary, the assessment showed a need for enhancing parking lot safety, replacing its 18-year-old roof, thorough upgrades of bathrooms, replacing lockers and remodeling the office for secure entry into the building.In addition, the building’s plumbing and heating/cooling operations would be replaced, as some of the infrastructure is original from when the building was constructed in 1955.The 37-year-old middle school/high school would receive new roof sections where needed, metal siding to prevent water infiltration, new boilers and piping, electrical fixes and a variety of other needs identified in the facilities study.In addition, the proposed 1-mill increase would allow for the purchase of seven new buses over an eight-year period, and a full technology upgrade.Mendon current levies 7 mills, the second most in the county behind Sturgis Public Schools and its 8.37 mills.Cupp said the district has waited as long as it could before considering a millage request.The survey regarding the issue is on the district’s website.